Cezanne, Paul

Born - Died : 1839 - 1906

French painter. He exhibited with the Impressionists in 1874 and is seen by art historians as having laid the foundations for abstract art. Clive Bell wrote that 'He was the Christopher Columbus of a new continent of form'. Yet Cezanne's own intention was to 'do Poussin again after nature'. His interest in the primary geometrical shapes can therefore be traced to Neoplatonism.